He also features in the top 10 for average goals per game (4.15) – an outrageous record for a player who rarely lined up as a traditional full forward until the twilight of his career.

Those later years under Malcolm Blight’s coaching were phenomenally productive for Ablett, who won three consecutive Coleman Medals between 1993 and 1995 with season goal tallies of 124, 129 and 122 respectively.

He remains the only player in history to have achieved such a feat with consecutive centuries, and the oldest man (33 years of age) to have notched 100+ goals in a single season.

Ablett also holds league records for most goals in a VFL/AFL Grand Final (nine) and most goals in a finals series (27), both achieved in 1989 when he famously won the Norm Smith Medal despite Geelong losing to Hawthorn in the decider.

He was similarly prolific in representative football, scoring 43 majors in 11 State of Origin caps in an era where Victoria’s forward line also boasted the likes of Lockett, Stewart Loewe, Garry Lyon, Dermott Brereton and Paul Salmon.

The elephant in Ablett Senior’s trophy room is the lack of a Grand Final winner’s medal. He played in three losing flag bouts with the Cats (1989, 1992, 1994), which gives him the dubious honour of being the greatest player never to win a VFL/AFL Premiership.